The following article is reposted with the permission of T. K. Burk! www.tkburk.com
In Numbers 19:1-22 we find a command for the sacrifice of a red heifer and the usage of its ashes. These verses describe a sacrifice that is unlike any other and that is central to Old Testament purification. For almost two thousand years there has been no red heifer meeting the specifications necessary from which this ash can be made. But recently there are reports of the birth of such a calf in Israel. This has led many Christian preachers that teach the prophecy view of “Dispensationalism” to tell their audiences this calf is a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, whose arrival means the construction of the third Jewish Temple cannot be far behind.
Dispensationalists believe that most of the prophecies about Israel are to be read literally as written. This creates a prophecy view that has God’s plan for Israel being different than His plan for the Gentiles (non-Jews). Their claim about this calf is nothing new for them for they have made the same claims about other red calves in the past. Each time they did this they ignored the obstacles that blocked their predictions. The (...)